Bhuvneshwar, Warner star as Sunrisers Hyderabad wallop Gujarat Lions

It was two partnerships either side of the innings break that enabled Sunrisers Hyderabad to defeat Gujarat Lions by 10 wickets at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot on Thursday (21 April). First, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4/29) and Mustafizur Rahman (1/19) bowled superbly to ensure Sunrisers Hyderabad restricted to Gujarat Lions to 135/8. During the chase, Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner hit their groove to share an unbeaten stand and help the side notch up their second win on the trot. Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Gujarat Lions by 10 wickets to climb to fourth on the IPL table.David Warner and Dhawan combined brilliantly to make a mockery of the paltry 136-run chase, putting on 137 runs opening-wicket stand. Warner, who scored his 26th IPL fifty off 29 balls and his second successive too, led from the front as he played an unbeaten knock of 74 off 48 balls that included nine fours. Dhawan, who was struggling for form prior to this game, also got his lost touch back as he scored a disciplined 40-ball half-century to guide his team. Dhawan hit five boundaries in his 41-ball 53 knock.Warner welcomed Dale Steyn, who was playing his first match of the season, with two fours in the very first over and then clobbered seamer Praveen Kumar with three boundaries in the fourth. Warner further hit two consecutive fours off Raina as Sunrisers reached 63/0 after six overs.

Dhawan had managed on 11 off 11 balls at the end of the sixth over, but with the team cruising towards victory, the left-hander found his form. He struck Bravo for three boundaries in quick succession as Sunrisers went past the hundred-run mark unscathed.

From there on, it was a walk in the park for the visitors.

For Lions, skipper Suresh Raina played a gritty knock of 75 off 51 balls that included nine boundaries and surprisingly not a single hit over the park. Raina and Brendon McCullum added crucial 56 runs for the second wicket to build up the Lions innings before McCullum was dismissed by Bipul Sharma for 18 that came in 17 balls with the help of one four and a lone six. Lions raced to 50/1 after six overs of Powerplay.The struggle of Lions batsmen against quality bowling attack was quite visible as they could only score 11 fours and one six in their innings. Also, only three batsmen managed to cross double-figure mark. Sunrisers' bowlers rose to the occasion as they gave away only 30 runs between 10 to 15 and 31 runs in the next five to break their opponent's back. Mustafizur bowled a superb 19th over, conceding only four runs to finish with the figures of 1/19 while Bhuvneshwar picked up three wickets in the form of Raina, Akshdeep Nath and Dale Steyn in the last over of the innings.Bhuvneshwar gave the home team a dream start after he cleaned up in-form Aaron Finch, who came in to this match on the back of three successive match-winning fifties, off the fourth ball of the first over. Bhuvneshwar unleashed perfect inswingers in his first three deliveries to shake Finch a bit. But Finch, who didn't move his feet at all, was finally undone by another vicious inswinger that darted in sharply to hit the stumps. Bhuvneshwar said after the innings that he kept that nagging line deliberately because Finch is not comfortable against the inswinging deliveries.In came Raina and he straightaway crossed 6000-run mark in T20s by hitting Bhuvneshwar for a boundary and also became the first Indian to achieve the feat. Mustafizur Rahman, who impressed everyone in his debut season, replaced Barinder Sran in the fourth over and gave away just 2 runs in his first over but was surprisingly removed from the attack by Sunrisers skipper David Warner.Deepak Hooda sent back Dinesh Karthik, who scored 8 off 9 balls, at the stroke of the halfway stage as Lions reached 74/3 after 10 overs, adding only 24 runs in four overs after Powerplay. Raina, who held the other end quite strongly, hit his 34th T20 fifty off 34 balls to keep the scoreboard ticking. Barinder, who gave away 24 runs in his first two-over spell, returned to dismiss dangerous Dwayne Bravo.

Mustafizur was brought back into the attack in the 15th over and he conceded only nine runs and scalped a rusty Ravindra Jadeja, who came back in to the team after his wedding, in his next over.

The lack of big hits towards the end left the homeside needing a thorough bowling effort to clinch another win, but it wasn't to be.